The Outforce Review

In The Outforce, the human race stumbles upon two warring races in the far
future and soon finds itself in the middle of all the shooting.

Gameplay in The Outforce is pretty much run of the mill real-time strategy.
You harvest metal from floating space debris, generate power with solar arrays
or reactors, and build stations which in turn are used to build your fleet. You
then send your fleet at the other player(s) until only one player is left
standing.

The Outforce's strongest point is its graphics. The maps in The
Outforce are quite colorful and dynamic - planets slowly rotate, space debris
tumbles through space, etc. While the game is played strictly in 2D space, it
does provide the player with some camera control, mostly in the form of a large
degree of zoom control. You'll most likely just leave things as zoomed out as
possible, though, since it is difficult to control your forces otherwise and the
ships do not show much detail when viewed close up.

Unfortunately, that is about all that can be positively said about the
game. Not only does The Outforce not bring anything new to the RTS table,
it doesn't hold up well against traditional RTS games. There are three races in
The Outforce, but they are pretty much identical outside of having different
looking ships. In addition, there is not that much variety among the different
ships - a large force consisting of just about any ship type is enough to win
the game.

The Outforce is not a very challenging game. The AI is very rudimentary and
is easily beaten. Computer controlled ships seem to follow preset paths to the
point where you can line those paths with laser batteries and watch the computer
happily send its ships into the gauntlet to be shredded. You'll be able to beat
the computer with regularity by simply sitting back and building a large fleet
and then sending them en masse at the computer's base. In fact, I never lost a
single game while playing it for this review.

The Outforce does introduce a new concept to the arena of space games -
fences. Yes, you can build fences around your base and they can keep enemy ships
out. Apparently ships in the far future will not have the ability to fly over
such obstructions. You'll also find the map littered with other impassable
obstructions such as planets and debris fields. This unfortunately turns many
maps into mazes which you must find your way through. This problem is compounded
further by the game's abysmal pathfinding. Ships will often get themselves stuck
on a fence or piece of space debris as they attempt to reach their destination.
Movement across the map requires close scrutiny if you want to make sure that
more than half of your fleet actually gets there.

In The End, This Game Hath Been Rated: 40%.
This game just does not provide anything new or provide much of a challenge.
Perhaps it might be appropriate for someone new to gaming, but most gamers will
grow quickly bored by it.